Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Shakespeare vs. History, or The Search for a Motif

So I'm trying to look for an overarching theme for my blog, something that will provide some kind of framework for the research that I will do in this class, and also something that will help me do well in the class and meet the learning outcomes.  The problem is, as is usual in our lives, making a choice.  I'm currently trying to decide whether I should go with a historical approach to Shakespeare, but I see two major obstacles to this idea:
1.  This approach has most likely been beaten to death by centuries of scholars, revived, stitched back together, and then killed again.  Viciously. 
2.  If most of you liked reading about things that actually happened, you probably wouldn't be taking English classes. 


It also seems like too easy of an approach to take, and I feel like my posts would simply become "yes, this play is somewhat historically accurate," or "no, that crazy Shakespeare is mixing modern (for his time) kingdoms with old outdated pagan ideas and beliefs again."  More on this later...

Above:  Historical details? Who needs those?

Did anyone else think The Winter's Tale wrapped up much too neatly?  I was ridiculously surprised by how quickly it ended in comparison to the build-up.  I did notice the themes of forgiveness though, especially in the beginning of Act V when Cleomenes and Dion beg Leontes to let go of his guilt. 
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2 comments:

  1. ebagistSeptember 21, 2011 at 4:01 PM

    As I read the fifth act, I thought that it ended way too fast, as if the precedent of 5 acts (and time constraints) required it to wrap up very quickly. I felt it didn't live up to the potential it was set up for. It's possible you could delve into possible meanings and intents there. However, in the end it mostly just makes me think of the all too quickly wrapped up story of (forgive the video game reference) Halo 2.

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  2. MasonSeptember 22, 2011 at 8:04 PM

    Yeah, it all seemed to quick. All of this build up and then suddenly it ended. It really surprised me that it just...ended. Like a bad movie that suddenly lost it's funding halfway through and had to quickly finish.

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